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Alan, the French digital health insurer valued at €5 billion ($5.8 billion) and counting France captain Kylian Mbappé among its investors, has acquired Tanel, a Dakar-based health technology company, in its first expansion into Africa.
Tanel operates in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, serving about 70,000 members across more than 400 companies and connecting them to over 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Alan puts the West African health insurance market at close to €600 million ($695 million) small against European markets, but largely unbuilt. Formal health cover reaches a narrow slice of the population across most of the region, and the infrastructure linking insurers, employers, pharmacies and clinics is thin. Tanel has already assembled a version of it in two countries.
The two companies say they are targeting one million customers across Africa by 2030. The immediate plan is to deepen operations in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire before moving outward. Nigeria and Kenya have been named as Anglophone targets, with further Francophone markets also under consideration.
That sequencing matters. Francophone West Africa shares regulatory frameworks and a common currency zone, making it the easier ground to consolidate. Nigeria and Kenya are larger prizes and harder ones, different regulators, different currencies, and incumbents already competing for the same employer-funded corporate health market.
Mbappé took part in a €100 million ($116 million) funding round in Alan in March and serves as a product ambassador on mental wellness and sleep. He is an investor in the acquirer rather than a participant in this transaction, and there is no indication he was involved in the Tanel deal.
His business interests run through Interconnected Ventures, his private holding company, whose investment arm Coalition Capital holds a small number of positions. In September 2024 he bought about 80 percent of Ligue 2 club Stade Malherbe Caen for a reported €15–20 million. Alan itself reached its €5 billion valuation in March 2026.
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